Brewer Eberly

What would change if the everyday carry of healthcare workers included not only a stethoscope and a smartphone, but also an illuminated book of prayers and practices for the clinical hours? Compact for work like the quick reference guides doctors and nurses carried for decades, On Service fits between your phone and your heart, a soul-nourishing analog resource that reorients you to the soul of medical care. At a time when many in the profession experience burnout and disillusionment, On Service will help clinicians slow down, reclaim presence, and see their patients with the eyes of faith, hope, and love. The book reimagines the rhythms of the clinical day, beginning with prayers a doctor or nurse might say as they cross the threshold, gather before rounds, enter a patient’s room, welcome a child, prepare for surgery, sit with one who is dying, or wait on call. Each page is an immersive visual experience to delight and steady the spirit of those called to serve the sick: details from centuries-old prints, typographic art pieces turning medical materials into invitations to read scripture, and inky woodcuts from contemporary artists paired with texts from the Christian tradition. On the busiest days, simply carrying this little book will remind clinicians of their intention to practice medicine with mercy and grace, as if they are serving Christ himself.

In an age of health care and wellness industries and near-religious pursuit of fitness and self-optimization, what does “health” mean for the chronically ill? For people with disabilities or mental health challenges or neurodiversity? For the aging and dying? This issue asks what it means to live well despite the limitations and frailties of our bodies, and what, beyond the scope of medicine, is needed for our flourishing. On this theme: Aberdeen Livingstone learns when to battle, and when to accept, chronic illness. Malcolm Guite defends the responsible use of pipe and pint. David Zahl calls out the wellness industry’s false promise of optimization. Abraham Nussbaum learns the limits of psychotherapy from his first patient. Cristiano Dennani photographs survivors of the Bhopal chemical spill in India. Heather M. Surls visits a tuberculosis hospital in Mafraq, Jordan. Brewer Eberly considers direct primary care, an attempt to reset the doctor-patient relationship. Devan Stahl considers what the wounds of the resurrected Christ mean for people with disabled bodies. Sam Tomlin wishes church and school weren’t such hurdles for children with autism. James Mumford finds the twelve steps of AA work when other approaches to addiction fail. Other articles in this issue: Jessica T. Miskelly, monitoring ocean currents on an icebreaker off Antarctica, feels the planet breathe. Kelsey Osgood visits a Jewish-Christian-Muslim interfaith center after October 7. Terence Sweeney profiles a repentant slaveholder, Bartolomé de las Casas. Plus: new poems by A. E. Stallings, short fiction by Narine Abgaryan, book reviews, and more. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain, whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. A desire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, and countless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people around the world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear their pain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer? On this theme: - Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought caused by climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out against Canada’s euthanasia experiment. - Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and three lives. - Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbing to Alzheimer’s. - Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to our best ministry. - Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to face repression boldly. - Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care. - Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient. - Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C. S. Lewis. Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom - Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya - An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water - Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. - Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich Arnold Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain, whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. A desire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, and countless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people around the world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear their pain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer? On this theme: - Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought caused by climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out against Canada’s euthanasia experiment. - Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and three lives. - Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbing to Alzheimer’s. - Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to our best ministry. - Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to face repression boldly. - Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care. - Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood.” - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient. - Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C. S. Lewis. Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom - Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya - An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water - Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. - Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich Arnold Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.